My first illusion cloth

I have always thought about giving the illusion cloths a try, and I finally put down all the gift knitting and with green and white cotton and size 5 needles and about an hours time, this is what I made.
It took me about half the cloth before I figured out how it worked. I tell you, I am impressed, this is the neatest thing.

Naturally I had to take it to work and show it off.
It was just as much fun watching everyone walk around it as it was to knit it.
I think I am going to make a matching red one next.
The pattern is over at Ravelry
The Illusion Tree Christmas Cloth
As far as I know, that is the only way to get it.

Then we made it to the fair.......

We finally got passed all the rain and made it to the fair,
PawPaw got to come for a couple of rides with the babies before he had to leave on the boat.
Tristan LOVES the rides. You can't see her but Bella Boop is there too.

Tristan and Isaac are not very patient when they have to wait to get on a ride. It's a good thing I like to go when it's not too busy.

Looks like Trin wasn't too sure about this one.

Mimi and the girls waiting for the boys to get done with a ride.

Tristan loves the fair so much he started dancing!
He's so cute!

Off to the trucks

and the motorcycles

Then it's off to the horses


Isaac loves monkey's he had a fit over this little guy, but wouldn't get his picture taken with him.

Desire' and Tristan and Isaac take the big slide, poor Isaac got all twisted around.


Then Cole took Bella down, she laughed till they got to the end.

Then more rides



Now it's off to the races!


Sorry Isaac, no Jimmie Johnson car, Earnhart will have to do.

Then it's time for the big ''kids''
Desire' and Sam


Cole and Ryan


Brian and Jennifer


Besides PawPaw leaving, it's was a fun day.

The Fair or Lack there of

We were supposed to go to the fair. Then it started raining, and what was supposed to last only an hour lasted all day and all night. So, since we already had the gang all gathered, we decided to eat Mexican,
Trin loves to eat, and my little ham loves to have her picture taken

Bella Boop just wants to clean everything! If there is a napkin around, she needs it, has to have it. Just don't look under the high chair, where she sweeps it all!

Tristan was just waiting, he's not our biggest eater, he just wanted the bubble gum out of the machine.

I think the salsa was a little too spicy for my man Isaac,
What a face!

This was the whole gang, we do make a crowd!

We had a great time and it was fun to get out with everyone, especially my SIL who hates to go out in public almost as much as Kevin does.

Blue Ribbon Award

I know, you were thinking fair weren't you? Actually I have to haul the stuff to the fairgrounds on Saturday, I have never put anything in the fair before, so don't know what I am going to do.
One of the girls at work suggested the bibs, she loves them and thinks they would win. I will probably through in a pair of socks too, just because where I live, there are very few knitted entries, I have seen one sweater and one afghan, that is it. So it's time to liven the knitting world up around here.
Ok, on to this award.

This was given to me by Crafty Carole
She has a great blog, I went there and had a look around, and you know what? Next time she goes thrift storing, I WANNA GO! She has some great sweater finds for re-using the yarn. I never find anything like that!

The rules are:
1- Post the award on your blog.

2- Add a link to the person who gave you the award.

3- Nominate at least 4 other bloggers and add their links:
I nominate:
Penny: PennyKnits
Elaine: Down Cloverlaine
SockPixie
And last, but far from least:
Smariek Knits

More Knitted Gifts!

This is the Tweety Pie Bib for Kendall's niece Tabitha.
This is her first baby and we were all excited when we found out it was a girl. She is due to make her appearance next month sometime. I never did get an exact date.
The pattern can be found here:
Down Cloverlaine
It's a pdf file so you must have adobe acrobat to get it. Look in the right hand side bar for the pattern. She has some great patterns on her website, when you get time you should check it out.

This bib is for my newest Grandson, due in December. His name is going to be Traedon. And yes, he is number five. This will be Tristan and Trin's little brother. I can't wait to see him!
He will get the matching cloth also, I just haven't done it up yet.
Pattern: Down Cloverlaine

This is the hat I made for my step father's father, Grandpa Al. He is the sweetest man.
I used the generic pattern from the knitting workshop and just improvised the design until it came out like I wanted. He lives in MO and stays in N.J. allot, so this is 100% wool.

A back scrubber and soap sweater set, this is for the Ole Man. He may have forced me to knit a damn scarf, but this year he is getting something extra, maybe he will decide next year, "Hey she can knit more than just scarves and I have sooooo many, maybe I will ask for something (anything) else this year!"
Think it will work?
Patterns: Soap Sweater
Back Scrubber:
This is by no means my idea, or a pattern I created. The basic idea came from
K1P1 Keeping You in Stitches
I cast on 3 sts and did a 9" icord, then I turned at the last row and CO 17 sts for a total of 20 sts.
I knit a seed st border for an inch then seed 4 sts, p3, k6,p3,seed4
On the next row, ws, seed 4 sts, k the knits and purl the purls.
I did the twist in the cable every eighth row.
I followed this for 16" then see for 1" then bo all but three sts, icord on those three sts for 9" and a three needle bind off to three BO sts from the other end. Sew on the first icord and wala!
I know this didn't make much sense, but it worked out for me.

I currently have OTN: a gown for Bella Marie, a pink blanket for Tab's baby girl and some coaster from Shirley's Knitting Knook yahoo group.
I will post pics of everything when I am finished with them all.

Picture Takers.... Beware!

You know, I must remember to delete the pics off of the camera when I am done with them. I was showing Deisre' the pictures from the beach with the kids, and guess what was still in the camera, The Frog Towel! She immediately knew it was hers and the surprise is ruined.
It's o.k. though, she still won't get it until Christmas, and she was soooo excited when she saw it, so at least now I know for sure she is going to like it.
So, people, a word to the wise, don't forget to delete those project pictures if they are gifts, or at least don't pull a "Leah" and hand them the camera and tell them to look at all the pictures!

Christmas Knitting Ideas: Freebies

It seems like everyone, including me, is stressing over holiday knitting. If you have read this blog very long, you know I started a while back, and I have now started to feel the crunch. I thought that starting earlier would stop that "feeling" we all get, but alas, I feel like I am running out of time and have too much to do. On top of that, grandbaby number five is due the beginning of December, so that moves up the priority list. So far all I have done for him is a bib from this pattern:
Dinosaur Bib look in the side bar on the right.
So I decided to cut my list short, not in people, in size, and effort of gift making.
I thought I would share some of my ideas with you.
For some of my co-workers I thought I would make up some mug recipe cups
Mug Recipe maybe pick up a cute coffee cup, something to match their personality, fill it with the ingredients, the printed recipe and a hand made mug rug, so it still has that hand made touch to it.
Wrap it all up in plastic and a bow and there you have it!

Then for some of the dozen or so guys in my life, maybe a soap sweater and a back scrubber and a matching cloth, all put in a small metal bucket, wrapped and bowed.

For my Aunts and Granny, some felted coasters in their favorite colors, along with a hand knit cloth and towel.

These are just a few ideas I think I can whip out pretty quickly and still fill the need to make everyone something hand made. Boy are these people lucky I love them! ;0) Actually, no, it's the other way around.
I would love anyone else's ideas if you would like to share, shoot me an email: leah at knittinfun dot com.

YouTube - Pardon Me (I Didn't Knit That for You)

YouTube - Pardon Me (I Didn't Knit That for You)
OMG you have got to see this, and if you have already, look again! It is too funny! I absolutely love those girls from Mason Dixon Knitting!
This will put a smile on your face! I promise ;0)